How To Pick The Best Commercial Contractors In Oklahoma
Whether you need your commercial building built, renovated, or remodeled, a commercial contractor can help. Quality commercial contractors are comfortable working in office spaces, restaurants, retail stores, warehouses, factories, and many other types of buildings.
Most business owners will work with a commercial contractor at some point to build or improve their building. If you have purchased a building and need to brand it to match your business, a contractor can help. Here's what you need to know about what commercial contractors do and how to pick the best commercial contractors in Oklahoma.
Do I Need a Commercial Contractor?
Before you start searching for the best commercial contractors in Oklahoma, you may be questioning whether you need a commercial contractor at all. If you're a do-it-yourselfer or have a good housing contractor, you may think that you can just as easily do the job yourself or save money on a low-budget contractor. However, commercial contracts have very different requirements and regulations than residential contracts for a couple of reasons:
Time
Every second that your business is closed for renovations, you are losing money. If you keep the business open and try to do renovations around customers, you may alienate long-term loyal customers who are frustrated with your lack of consideration.
Therefore, you want renovations done as rapidly as possible, which is best accomplished with an experienced commercial contractor.
Regulations
Meeting regulations is extremely important, no matter what kind of construction you are doing. However, meeting regulations promptly and correctly is often not as critical in residential projects as commercial ones.
If your building isn’t up to code and an inspector needs to come back, you'll lose valuable time while your business is closed. Failing to meet health code or other regulations means that you may be delayed in opening your business, which may look very bad to the consumer. Finally, there may be other penalties or fines associated with failing to comply with regulations promptly.
Professional and Polished Result
You may be able to get the job done by yourself or with a small contractor, but the chances are that the results will not be nearly as professional. How your building looks reflects on your business and can even affect your employees’ morale, so it is crucial that the finished building is as attractive and professional as possible.
What to Look For in a Commercial Contractor
The quality commercial contractor in Oklahoma that you're considering should offer a couple of key attributes, regardless of whether the company is big or small and no matter what kind of job you want to have done:
Great Communication
A good commercial contractor in Oklahoma should feel like somebody that you are very comfortable talking to. You can't expect to understand every nuance related to commercial contracting, but your contractor should go out of their way to make it easy for you to understand the limitations of a given project and how different aspects of the design may affect the end result.
You should feel very comfortable discussing every element of the project with your contractor. After every conversation that you have with the contractor, you should feel confident about what decisions were reached, when projects will be completed, and what the primary objectives and potential limitations of each aspect of the project are.
If you ever feel that your contractor is impatient or frustrated with having to explain aspects of the job to you, look elsewhere for a contractor who has the patience to communicate well.
Competent, Organized, and Detail-Oriented
Completing a commercial contract is a huge project with thousands of moving parts. You need a contractor organized enough to track every aspect of the project while keeping deadlines and potential setbacks in mind.
The best commercial contractors exude an air of confidence and self-assurance even if things seem a bit crazy. Avoid any contractor that seems like they are barely keeping things together, regardless of how friendly they may be.
Avoid any contractor who is trying to do commercial contracts at the same time as balancing another career. You need a contractor that is completely committed to contracting work and has the equipment and experience it takes to do the job right.
Experienced in Oklahoma
The commercial contractors in Oklahoma that you consider should have extensive experience in not only the industry but in the area that you need construction done. Ordinances, codes, and even tastes vary by location.
You can also feel confident that a contractor who is experienced working in your area has a reputation to protect. Look into reviews, and don't just look at whether all of the reviews are positive.
Consider the negative reviews and try to have an open mind about what could have gone wrong with the contract and why a customer might have been dissatisfied. Did the company make an effort to make it right with the customer, or did they ignore the complaints?
Did the customer seem reasonable, or did they have an expectation that wouldn't have been possible for any contractor? Understanding the reviews and why a given company might have gotten the review they did can go a long way to shedding light on how high-quality a given company is.
Certified and Licensed
Never consider any commercial contractor who is not fully licensed and insured for the kind of work that you need done. It is even more essential in business contracting that every single certification and license is taken into consideration to make sure that your business will be up to code on time.
The last thing that you need is for business to be delayed while you wait for the project to be brought up to code once you've already been waiting for construction to be completed.
Offers a Detailed Bid
Commercial contracts are usually quite complicated. Be wary of any contractor that tries to give you a bid without going over all of the details of the project.
Such contractors may be more likely to bring up a problem and charge you more than the original bid once the project is already underway. You do not want to have to worry about the price going up down the road, so make sure that you've discussed every detail of the price with your contractor so you know there won't be any surprises.
Avoid any contractor that seems at all vague or evasive when they are describing the bid. On the other hand, a degree of variability make sense for any contract. The important point is that every degree of the variability within a proposed contract is explained thoroughly.
Equally Skilled in Polished Spaces and Work Areas
Most of the time, when you need a commercial contract to be carried out in a space, you'll need both polished indoor spaces to receive customers and have meetings and rougher workspaces for inventory and production.
You want a company that has a lot of experience in both types of building. Contractors that are only comfortable in warehouse spaces may not be able to create an attractive polished indoor space, so you'll need to pay more for an interior designer and additional construction down the road. Other companies may be great at creating attractive reception spaces, but won't be able to save you money on spaces that do not need to be as visibly appealing.
Handles Every Aspect of the Job
Choose a commercial contractor that takes care of every part of the building process, from initial design all the way to completion. They should carefully plan out every aspect of the design with you so you know exactly what to expect, how much it will cost, and how long it will take.
You should have a good idea of how the job will unfold before much money is spent. Avoid companies that bases their planning on what independent contractors might do.
Planning should encompass the architecture that will be done, aspects of interior designs, and what equipment will be installed. The company should also take care of locating and selecting a site and doing all essential assessments for it, as well as master planning.
Every aspect of the design and construction should be seen through by one competent company that communicates well with you throughout.
Choose Aztec Building Systems for Commercial Construction in Oklahoma
Aztec Building System has been building beautiful, functional, and reasonably priced commercial buildings throughout Oklahoma and other states since 1965. We have experience in this area to understand every aspect of the design and construction of your facility. We’ll take the time to talk to you about every detail of the project.
Aztec Building System’s two-phase technique enables you to have a complete perspective of how the finished job will look and be performed when you have only spent a very small fraction of the project cost.
That way, there won't be any surprises as the building progresses. If at any point you are confused or have questions or second thoughts about the designs, we will not hesitate to speak through your concerns with you. When you need commercial construction in Oklahoma, we have you covered.